Tag Archives: Pew Research Center

If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. [Genesis 9:6]

“Controversy over the Sept. 21 execution of Troy Davis, has focused renewed attention on the death penalty. Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing a Georgia police officer. A 2010 Pew Research Center survey found that most Americans (62%) express support for the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. An analysis of trends over time shows that public support for capital punishment has experienced significant rises and dips since the late 1960s, but it has never fallen below 50%.”

Former Assemblies of God missionary Don Newville is now a Catholic convert. Former Charismatic Pastor Jeff Cavins is now a popular Catholic speaker. Former Campus Crusade staffer Peter Gillquist is now an Orthodox priest. The controversial pro-lifer Randall Terry announced he has converted to Catholicism.

Wow, at first glance, it appears protestants are trending toward Catholicism. However, that simply isn’t the case. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic and many are converting to Protestantism because of spiritual hunger and style of worship.

“One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic,” Thomas Reese notes in an April 18 article in the National Catholic Reporter. “If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.”

Reese’s article, which generated buzz and debate in the Catholic world, argued that the primary reason people leave the Catholic church for Protestantism is not disagreement with the church’s doctrinal or social positions, but spiritual hunger.

“Their spiritual needs were not being met in the Catholic church and they found a religion they like more,” Reese writes, citing a study by the Pew Research Center. “Eighty-one percent of respondents say they joined their new church because they enjoy the religious service and style of worship of their new faith.”

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The husband of Regina, the father of Amanda, the grandfather of Andrew, Anna and Aaron, a church planter who now has the honor of serving some of the Kingdom’s finest Christ Followers in LaGrange, Georgia. [more]

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Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.